InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Future Beginnings ❯ Ch 11: More friends ( Chapter 11 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

Ch 11:

 

 

“Mama? Did I wake you up? What time is it there anyway?.... No, no everything's fine. I just wanted to hear your voice.… Yes, school is going well…. Inuyasha? Oh, well, the funniest thing…can you believe he followed me here? ….no, Mama….well, he's sort of staying in my dorm room for the time being…what?....Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. You see, I was afraid Inuyasha would be noticed if he went around wearing his usual clothes, so I used your credit card to get him a couple of outfits….oh, that's a relief. I didn't want you to be mad at me….What? Of course n--….no, my roommates met him. They don't know he's a hanyou, of course, but they're ok with him being here….in my room……………all right, Mama….I promise….I love you too….'bye.”

 

Kagome hung up the phone and sank slowly back down onto her bed. That went better than she expected, although after all the time she had spent virtually alone with Inuyasha in the past, she hadn't thought her mother would assume they were intimate now that she was away at college. She had asked Kagome to please go to the school clinic and get birth control pills. That had shocked Kagome more than anything else she might have said. It was obvious from her mother's tone that she did not approve of their living arrangements. She had wanted to talk to her mother about moving out of the dorm and into an apartment in the city—she had found out from the school that she could use her housing allowance for an apartment instead—but obviously now that her mother knew about Inuyasha, she would immediately guess the reason why she wanted to move. That plan would have to go on hold for a little while.

 

“So, your mother knows about us.”

 

Kagome glanced up to see Inuyasha leaning against her bedroom doorframe, arms folded. He didn't look directly at her.

 

“Inuyasha? I thought you went to meet Noriko for your English lesson.”

 

“I did. She wanted to come back here.” He jerked his head towards their living area. “She's out there.”

 

Kagome turned beet red. She jumped up from the bed and dragged Inuyasha into the room, closing the door behind her. “Did she hear too?”

 

“Of course not. She doesn't have hearing like I do.” He sat down on the bed. “Your mother didn't sound too happy.”

 

“You heard her?”

 

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. “I just told you I have good ears.” He wiggled them under the hat for effect. “Are you ok? If you think it will help, I could leave for a while….”

 

“You are not leaving! I'm fine with it, and my mother will be ok too once she has a chance to adjust to it. I think she always wished we would be together some day. This probably wasn't quite how she had thought it would happen, though.” Kagome had to admit that it wasn't how she had envisioned it either.

 

Kagome left for class, still a little puzzled why Noriko had asked Inuyasha to bring her back to the dorm for their lesson. Did she want to see if Inuyasha was really staying here? Kagome wasn't embarassed anymore. Her mother knew, so she didn't care if her friends knew, too.

 

“Is there some trouble?” Noriko asked Inuyasha.

 

“No. Why would there be trouble?” Inuyasha asked. He pulled out his new notebook and pen. “What are we doing today?”

 

“Today I thought we would talk a little bit. Do you know someone named Miroku?”

 

“Miroku? Yeah, he's a friend of mine,” answered Inuyasha, thinking of the real Miroku. “Why?”

 

“Just asking. I met him last night with Kagome and something he said made me think of you.”

 

Oh, that Miroku. Him. He guessed there would be similarities, in that case.

 

“Do you mind that Kagome was with him last night? I thought she was your girlfriend, not his. Was I wrong? I don't mean to stir up trouble, but I don't want --“

 

“What are you trying to say? I'm fine with Kagome and Miroku.” He stressed the name. “They just had dinner anyway. Then they came back here.”

 

“Here. So I was wrong. I apologize. I thought—“

 

“I know what you thought.” Inuyasha drummed his nails on the table, inadvertently drawing Noriko's attention to them. “Kagome's not like that.”

 

“I know. I'm sorry.” Noriko opened her book. “Shall we get back to your lesson?”

 

Inuyasha grunted in agreement and the two of them spent the next hour speaking only English. As they ended their lesson, Noriko murmured, “I really do like Kagome. Please don't take what I said the wrong way. I'd like it if all of us could be friends.”

 

Great, thought Inuyasha. Another one who wants to meet me as myself and me as Miroku at the same time.

 

“Sure,” he said.

 

 

Kagome never thought Inuyasha would last as long as he did playing the normal human boy. But he stayed in her dorm room or walked around campus by himself when she had to go to classes. He still followed her when he thought she wasn't looking. Once she caught him staring in her second-floor classroom window from the roof of the first-floor addition. At least he was wearing modern clothes and his ears were covered. She had half stood up, ready to sit him, when he caught her eye and bolted. She didn't see him again for the rest of the day.

 

She did, however, see Peter. He bumped into her, more like ran across the lawn to catch up with her, as she made her way to the campus bookstore after lunch.

 

“Hi! Kagome, right?” he said, slightly out of breath. “I'm Peter, Miroku's friend.”

 

Kagome couldn't help smiling at the thought of `Miroku.' Why Inuyasha used that name was a mystery. Peter's `Miroku' was so definitely Inuyasha.

 

Of course Peter thought her smile was all for him and he grinned back.

 

Kagome kept glancing nervously around to see if Inuyasha was going to spring up. He tended to misinterpret things like this. Peter was just being friendly. He walked with her to the bookstore, then to her next class. He even carried her books for her. What a nice boy, she thought.

 

 

After he had been chased away by Kagome's impending `sit' command, Inuyasha spent the afternoon prowling the little wild patch near the footbridge. It had rained recently and the little stream had overflowed its banks all the way up to the black road, so nobody was using that path today.

 

Inuyasha took off his hated shoes, then rolled up the legs of his jeans so they wouldn't get wet and smell awful like the other ones he had left outdoors. He already had short sleeves on his t-shirt so that wasn't a problem. He happily splashed around in the flooded woods, catching fish which he popped into his mouth, and startling half-frozen frogs into sudden mobility. His hat fell off and landed in the water but he wrung it out and stuck it back over his ears anyway. Kagome really got upset when his ears weren't covered.

 

Inuyasha met Kagome at sunset just as her last class was getting out. He stopped suddenly as he got close to her and began sniffing the air around her. She pulled him up by his hair when he concentrated his sniffing on the books in her arms.

 

“Here, if you like them so much, you carry them,” she said.

 

Inuyasha took the books from her, giving them and Kagome one final sniff before he asked, very calmly, “Peter?”

 

“You can smell him?”

 

Inuyasha tapped the side of his nose. “So what were you doing with Peter?” He still was fairly calm. Peter was his friend, after all.

 

“Oh, I ran in to him on my way to class and we talked a little bit. He was looking for Miroku,” Kagome said.

 

“Well, he's going to have a long wait. I think Inuyasha would like to meet Peter, what do you think?”

 

Kagome giggled. “Yes, I think Inuyasha and Peter would definitely get along. Do you think we should try the snack bar again? He seems to like that place. I could introduce you two.”

 

They strolled over to the snack bar, which was crowded as usual. Kagome took a tray and got a sandwich and a drink. Inuyasha let her do the square card this time.

 

“Aren't you getting anything?” Kagome asked him.

 

“I'm not hungry,” he mumbled.

 

Kagome looked at him in astonishment and felt his forehead to see if he had a fever. “I've never seen you not hungry,” she commented.

 

Just then the missing Peter walked in. “Kagome!” he called. “Hi again!” Ever bubbly, he sat down at their table and stuck out his hand to Inuyasha. “Hi, I'm Peter.”

 

Inuyasha, having been through the whole introduction routine once before with Peter, shook his hand back, careful not to gouge him with his nails. “Inuyasha.”

 

“That's quite a mouthful. Mind if I just call you Inu?”

 

Kagome sputtered into her soda.

 

“Who is he calling a dog?” asked Inuyasha in Japanese.

 

Kagome just laughed harder. “His whole name is Inuyasha. `Inu' means `dog' in Japanese—better not call him that!” she explained to Peter.

 

“Inuyasha it is, then. I don't like people calling me `Pete' either, so I can sympathize. He turned back to face Inuyasha. “What is it with you Japanese guys and long hair—is it some kind of cultural thing?”

 

Inuyasha caught the word `hair' and looked to Kagome for translation. She explained what Peter had asked, and Inuyasha relaxed. “The men in my family all have long hair. It's a part of our heritage,” he said as Kagome translated for him.

 

She looked at Inuyasha afterward. “I didn't know that,” she said.

 

“There's a lot you don't know about me,” he told her, softening the words with a smile.

 

“Hey, over here?!” Peter brought the conversation back to him.

 

They walked back to the shuttle bus and since Peter was with them, Inuyasha suffered through taking the bus instead of taking the high road he preferred.

 

At Kagome's place, Inuyasha opened up the little fridge and handed Peter one of Jen's beers. They sat on the couch and watched tv until Peter decided he had better get back.

 

Peter invited them over his house for the weekend. His family lived about an hour away. They both politely declined because they had other plans, but set the date for the next weekend instead. “Bring lots of friends,” said Peter. “We'll make it a party.”